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Bowling is a sport wherein players are expected to topple down pins by rolling a bowling ball along a flat surface towards the target. There are different types or variations of bowling which can be distinguished by playing it indoors and outdoors. The origin of bowling can be traced back to ancient Egypt in 5200 BC when artifacts similar to the bowling ball and pins were found in the tomb of an ancient Egyptian boy. If you are interested in taking bowling as a hobby or a sport you have to learn the basics of playing and techniques to be able to score well.

The development of the bowling game started out during the 3rd and 4th centuries when German parishioners used to roll or throw an object towards a pin as a religious ritual for avoiding doing acts of penance. However, bowling was banned in Europe in the 14th century due to its popularity which made people neglect practicing archery. This was crucial since archery was the necessary national defense during the 100 year war. In 17th century, the Dutch colonists brought bowling to the United States wherein the game consisted of nine pins set in a triangle. However, towards mid-19th century bowling was banned in the most states because of rampant gambling. Due to this and since bowling was played outdoors, an indoor variation was created but this time using ten pins.

The following are the different variations of bowling developed throughout the history of this sport:

INDOOR BOWLING

• Ten-pin bowling – the balls used have two or more drilled holes used for inserting the fingers and gripping the ball.
• Candlepin bowling - uses double-ended pins which are considered to be the highest of pins used in bowling.
• Duckpin bowling – uses small, squat pins measuring about 9 3/8 inches while the ball used doesn’t have any finger holes.
• Bumper bowling – ten-pin bowling usually played in children’s parties and uses barriers to avoid gutters.

OUTDOOR BOWLING

• Lawn Balls – this is played by rolling a ball towards a smaller white ball.
• Bocce – usually played in an oyster shell court and the objective of the game is to be able to roll the ball towards a smaller ball. The player who was able to roll the ball nearest the smaller one receives a point.
• Petanque – this is played by standing with the feet together in a small circle and throwing metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball.
• Irish road bowling – this is played by throwing the ball along a country road course of up to 4 kilometers long. The player who throws the farthest with the fewest throws wins the game.

To play a good game of bowling, there are several things you have to take note of, such as:

• Bowling equipment - make sure that your bowling ball has the correct weight for the game of your choosing. You should also wear a good pair of bowling shoes which you can use for different lane conditions.
• Delivery - learn and practice to improve your bowling stance and finish position. This will help you become a good bowler.
• Bowling lane conditions – make necessary adjustment for different bowling lane conditions which include dry, medium and oily lanes.
• Mental game of bowling - make sure that you are prepared mentally before and while playing bowling.
• Consistency – this is an important characteristic of a good bowler to be able to score high in a game of bowling.

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In our work with senior executives, it is not uncommon to hear the following:

o I cannot afford to retire at age 65. My Business School roommate was able to retire at 45. I must be a failure.

o I can’t find a full-time job. I can only make money doing interim work or consulting work. I must be a failure.

Welcome to the world of short job tenure and long middle age.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF SHORT JOB TENURE AND LONG MIDDLE AGE.

These individual complaints are but symptoms of two larger social trends impacting all developed countries. The first trend is a shortening of traditional job tenure in line with the collapsing time frame for product life cycles, and corporate life cycles. Technology has been a driver behind the speeding up of our lives, including the speeding of what economists call creative destruction.

At the same time job tenure is getting shorter, life span is increasing. You can thank the same technological thinking that has also contributed to the lowering of your job tenure. The average life span within industrial societies has increase 12 years since social security was adopted. It is important, however, to remember that this additional 12 years is not an additional 12 years of old age. It is an elongation of middle age. Thriving in a world of short job tenure/long middle age requires career and strategic maneuverability. As an individual and as a business leader, the symbol for this maneuverability is Lou Gerstner:

Lew Gerstner was a partner at a leading LBO firm. He joined IBM as its CEO at a time when it had one hundred days of cash left and had just lost $8.1 Billion. People were writing-off IBM as a “has been” organization. In an engineering driven company, he admitted that he was technically incompetent. And yet, he moved IBM from a hardware-oriented company to a maneuverable global player focusing on IP and professional services.

SURVEY OBJECTIVES.

We interviewed 50 executives who have been successful in managing their careers in a world of short job tenure and long middle age. Most of them were CEOs or reported directly to CEOs. Success was defined as financial and emotional satisfaction with both consulting and employment phases of their professional lives. What have we learned?

FREE AGENCY IS BOTH TRUE AND MISLEADING.

In the last ten years of the 20th century, Economists like Robert Reich and popular business magazines like BUSINESS 2.0 began to write about Free Agent Nation: Under a free agent model, executives have careers that resemble professional sports stars. Free agents smoothly shifting from one major league team to another major league team through the work of third parties. In the sports and entertainment sectors, these third parties are called Agents. In the world of business, these people are called retained search executives.

Professional sports players represent an elite segment of the general population. And even within this elite group, only the top 10-15% of this elite can count on the Free Agent model to work in their favor.

What happens to the other 85 percent?

When their contracts with one major league team are not renewed, it is the beginning of the end of their professional sports career. It may also mean the start of a new profession. Even for the elite within the sports elite, Free Agency is true for only a limited time.

The concept is similar in business but it is not openly discussed.

Free Agency says that winners smoothly move from full time job to full time job with the help of recruiters. Senior Executives are an elite group within the business world. But within this world, Executive Recruiters prefer to work with what they call “A Players.” This is the elite within the elite. “A Players” have a performance record, a public reputation, and a chronological age that is desired by company clients. Even “A Players” will find recruiters will stop working for them when they reach a certain age.

What happens to the vast majority of executives, who are elite but are not A Players or are former A Players?

The notion of moving from a “good” corporate job to “Temporary Help” as a consultant or an interim executive can feel humiliating if you adopt a Free Agency Model of career management.

The career reality we see within elite executives is a constant traversing from full-time assignments or W-2 relationships to project assignments or 1099 relationships. And then back again. Failure to grasp the realities of the marketplace can make life even more painful. Consider the case of Jack:

Jack was CFO of a company in a declining industry. A larger player acquired Jack’s company and he received a one-year severance agreement as part of his exit package.

Jack spent the first nine months aggressively networking for a full-time CFO job in his geographic area, while making it clear that a full-time CFO position requiring relocation would be a second choice. By month ten, Jack became concerned about his family cash flow situation, and began looking for interim CFO assignments or project consulting assignments.

Jack found hi network unresponsive and the reason was obvious. Jack had clearly signaled early in his job search that Project Assignments were not on his original career agenda. Jack’s network reasonably concluded that he had failed to achieve his goals and was now desperate.

Jack is now approaching month 24 without either employment assignments or project assignments.

**

We work with executives like Jack every day. His story is both unhappy and common. It need not have ended this way. Jack needed to understand and accept that his career may have begun as an employee but it would most certainly end as a consultant. Nor did he understand that a lifetime of work does not involve managing a single career comprised of a series of corporate jobs.

Think of your clients as managing two distinct careers. One career focuses on employment assignments and the other focuses on project assignments.

Our mission as career consultants is to teach leaders what we know about managing these two careers so that they will be successful at both.

CLIMBING CORPORATE LADDERS

A second dysfunctional model links career advancement with the analogy of climbing ladders. This analogy may be viable for large companies with a sophisticated approach to management development. But most companies we work with adopt a “Just in Time” approach to leadership:

When we need a new leader we will find the person best qualified as quickly as possible. We will take this to retained search and ask for the best qualified candidates within the company or outside the company.

Most in-house executives correctly assume a recruiting bias for hiring outside the company rather than promoting from within. Few companies groom executives for higher-level positions, thus promoting an in-house person is sometimes as much a leap of faith hiring an outside person. The in-house person, however, may come with a track record of faults and political enemies. Rakesh Khurana has written about the tendency of Boards to hire outsiders rather than select insiders.

The successful people we interviewed do not think in terms of ladders. They think in terms of traversing the careers of their professional lives. The skiing term of traversing means moving from a straight line to a zigzag pattern along different terrain. During your Alpine ski run you may traverse over ice patches, powder snow, or come up against moguls.

o Moving up a ladder requires steady discipline and persistence in the face of obstacles.

o Traversing requires also requires discipline combined with maneuverability.

Ladder climbing was a great metaphor for career management for industrial-based economies of the mid 20th Century. Traversing careers is a more appropriate metaphor for the first quarter of the 21st century.

Let’s get back to the example of Jack.

Jack needed to understand and accept that his career may have begun as an employee but it would most certainly end as a consultant.

Jack’s career would not be a single career comprised of a series of corporate jobs. It is more like managing two criss-cross careers – one focusing on employment assignments and the other focusing on project assignments.

This is what we call traversing careers as opposed to managing A career.

Here are three lessons we have learned from these careers masters: traverse with your edge, master affiliation needs, and traverse between provincial/cosmopolitan knowledge:

LESSON #1: TRAVERSE WITH YOUR EDGE:

In traversing on skis, you lead with your ski edge. Your edge gives you maneuverability. In career traversing you lead with your skills edge. Your edge gives you maneuverability through different terrain. James is an example of one of our 50 executives:

After receiving his MBA from Columbia University, James went into banking. Various assignments at Mellon Bank and Bank of America eventually led to James’ being hired as President/CEO of an Oregon bank. In 1990, James’ bank was acquired and he was without employment, so James created a one-person consulting firm, whose initial focus was on what James called “credit dependent companies.” Using his personal relationships with West Coast bank presidents, James was able to negotiate settlements so that both sides could have something of value.

By 1994, the recession had lifted, and one of James’ clients came to him for consulting assistance. One consulting opportunity led to an offer to become Chief Operating Officer. His assignment was to double the size of this medical products distribution company and then sell the company to a national player in the industry during a time when rollups were attractive IPOs.

This assignment was completed within eighteen months. Once again James opened his consulting practice. One of his clients was a nonprofit organization. This consulting assignment brought him exposure to new areas like fund raising and working with agencies in Washington, DC. This assignment was completed after two years. The contacts James developed brought him to the notice of a Board member of a non-profit company in his town. James was offered the position of Chief Executive Officer for an Oregon human services organization with a budget of $265 Million and its impact is felt state wide.

James has been a bank president, a distribution company COO, and a nonprofit CEO. Between these Employment Assignments, there has been a constant theme of Project Assignment work that leads him to the next Employment Assignment.

James has had many job titles and in many different industries. But he always leads with his edge. What is James’ edge?

Here is what James says:

“I have centered my professional life on one strong theme: I solve financial/organizational problems from a perspective of a banker. Had I identified myself as a ‘banker,’ my goose would have been cooked as the banking industry continued its consolidation. Instead I have worked with medical products, retail companies, construction companies, a giftware company, and health care products.

It has been fun, a real learning experience. But my core identity remains the same. That never changes.”

Again, the concept is in career traversing you lead with your edge and that gives you maneuverability to move over different terrains. Notice how he does not define his edge as a functional or industry expertise?

—

Ted is another career traversing executive who has defined his professional edge.

Ted began his IT career working with a variety of large corporations, beginning with EDS, the global IT outsourcing firm and Honeywell. Five years later, he moved to Monchik Weber, a consulting firm. His success as a consultant in an assignment involving ocean cargo issues led to an opportunity to become CIO for a company in the ocean freight transportation industry. Five years later, he was once again consulting. But the consulting assignment helped him gain credibility in the financial services sector. Ted is now CIO for a global financial services company.”

In commenting on his professional life, Ted finds himself a solid constant in a series of ever-changing Employment Assignments and Project Assignments:

“My skills are coaching and developing people in technical environments. Internal or external, I use the same tools. I just apply those tools in different way.”

Notice how both executives define themselves more broadly than their industry or functional labels of the moment. In a world of short job tenure/long middle age, industry or function can change. Think of Lou Gerstner. But there needs to be a solid core self-definition for stability in a professional world that constantly changes.

LESSON #2: MASTER AFFILIATION NEEDS

Affiliation is the desire to be part of a group that is larger than you. Beyond the pain not having a regular income, lack of colleagues or not being part of a team is the most difficult issue our clients deal with during the external phase of the executive assignments..

Moderate needs for affiliation are ideal for senior executives in the employment assignment phase. You should enjoy being part of a team.

When traversing into the project assignment phase of your career, even moderate affiliation needs can be dysfunctional: your value to your client is objectivity. Constant angling to figure out ways of remaining as a permanent guest detracts from that value.

Where can you get those affiliation needs met if they are not going to be met by your next employer?

Guilds or professional associations are work-related reference groups outside the corporation. These reference groups focus on functions, industry, or specific problems/opportunities. For example:

Functional: Financial Executives International, Young President’s Organization, The Executive Committee, Society for Human Resource Management, Turnaround Management Association, California Association of Radiologists, Society for Information Management, American Marketing Association.

Industry: Massachusetts Hospital Association, California Biotech Council, National Association of Manufacturers, Florida Orange Grower’s Association, Georgia Medical Association, Institute for Management Consulting, Society for Professional Consulting.

Problem/Opportunity: SENG, Association for Corporate Growth, MIT Enterprise Forum, Senior Executive Networking Group, Harvard Business School Alumni Association, American Chamber of Commerce in Berlin.

LESSON #3 TRAVERSE BETWEEN PROVINCIAL AND COSMOPOLITAN KNOWLEDGE

In the Employment Assignment trajectory, leaders are hired to manage the work of others. Moving up the corporate career ladder often means leaving behind technical mastery in favor of leadership mastery that could apply in any organization. We call these skills cosmopolitan skills. Lou Gerstner took over IBM without skills as an electronics engineer or appropriate background in IBM’s technology foundation. George Marshall moved from being a soldier to running the Department of Defense to being Secretary of State to being the President of the American Red Cross. He was a master of the cosmopolitan skills of management and this allowed him to maneuver. On the other hand, Project Assignment professionals are often hired because of their specific substantive content knowledge. This specific type of specific knowledge is called provincial knowledge. Ted is a careers master and knows how to manage the interplay between cosmopolitan and provincial knowledge:

“I am already thinking ahead to the next move in my career. And that will probably be a consulting position. It is important to keep my technical skills sharp. I am planning to take a course in a technical area. You’ve got to stay sharp. Taking the courses also helps shape the external perception others have of me. I want to be flexible. I am 54. It is important to build a perception that I am not stuck in a mold. Taking courses is one way to do that. Right now I am taking a course on a specific applications program at a local community college. But two years ago I was in the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School talking Big Company Strategy. It’s important to do both.

Note that Ted understands that his current Employment Assignment will set the stage for his next Project Assignment.

EXHILARATION AND TERROR

You may have begun your career as an employee. You most certainly will end it as a consultant. In between, you will criss-cross the Employment and Assignment trajectories. This criss-cross is what we call careers management. Each trajectory has different rules. Fail to master these rules at your peril.

The cases of James and Ted illustrate a combination of flexibility with discipline. That mixture of flexibility and discipline is not unlike skiing down a mountain in a criss-cross mode, as you navigate through different types of snow and different terrain.

The payoff of skiing with flexibility and discipline are the simultaneous emotions of exhilaration and terror. Careers management also provides those same emotions. As James says:

“If you only focus on what is expected of you in your job, your ability is restricted to the next run in the ladder. The trick is to learn how to rapidly change ladders!”

The upside of this exhilaration and terror is the closest thing to job security most executives will know in the 21st Century: the security of knowing you know how to sell successful generate income as a consultant. Consider the case of Larry Gibson:

Larry Gibson was Chief HR Officer with Harvard Pilgrim Health Plan. Prior to that he was head of HR for a division of Motorola. For the past three years he has been earning an income in Project Assignments:

“My life as a consultant has broadened my professional perspective and given me a broader industry expertise. This makes me more marketable. I enjoy consulting. I know how to make a living at it. If a full-time job opportunity came, I’d certainly look at the opportunity. But it would have to go over a higher hurdle before I would sign on.”

###

REFERENCES

Laurence J. Stybel & Maryanne Peabody. “The Right Way to Be Fired.” HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, July-August, 2001,pp. 87-95.

John J. Davis & Associates. Quoted in EXECUTIVE RECRUITER NEWS. 24,4,2002, p.1.

Adecco. “Adecco Survey Exposes Perceptions and Misperceptions About Temporary Employment.” Melville, N.Y.Adecco, 2002

Laurence J. Stybel and Maryanne Peabody are co-founders of Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire. http://www.stybelpeabody.com Its 25 year old mission is helping companies manage critical leadership when the stakes are high. Core services include Retained Search+ for Board-level positions and positions that touch the Board (CEO, CFO, General Counsel, VP HR). Their other website is http://www.boardoptions.com They also provide leadership continuity services such as coaching and outplacement.

These days, when you are travelling down the highway, you always see a number of different restaurants or signs that are advertising different restaurants. Although some people do not want to admit it, dining out has become a big part of American life. It used to be when the man of the house came home, the wife had already prepared dinner and it was setting on the table ready for the family to eat. Now, dining has completely changed because now when the man of the house comes home, his wife may not even be home yet because she is at work, and if she is, she is more likely to say; let’s eat out tonight.

Dining in restaurants has become second nature when families or busy, or if they want to dress up and go out to a fancy dinner and a night on the town. It is easier to get dressed up and drive to a place where they prepare all of the food for you and just set it on the table for you to eat rather than sit at home for hours in the kitchen trying to make a meal. Even if a family does want to eat in the comfort of their own home, many restaurants offer takeout and delivery to their customers, where a person can come in and pick up the food and take it home or a person from the restaurant will deliver the food right to your front door.

It is also easy for families to do research on restaurants because there are many dining reviews of different establishments available online for anyone to see. These are done by critics who go to the restaurant and have a meal and then write about the positives and negatives on the restaurant so people can easily decide if they want to eat there or not.

Restaurants have also helped boost economies all over the world, often accounting for a big part of the country’s revenue. Corporations like McDonald’s have brought large economic increases and stabilization to different third world countries who have little to no revenue.

Although most people have not realized and just gone on with their regular routines, dining out has become a big part of the world, and people are eating less at home and more in an eating establishment.

For dining out guide, visit JP Pepperdine now.

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When one thinks of rental cars, they usually imagine overused sedans in neutral colors that lack pep or performance. Rental cars have often been generic, neutral vehicles maintained due to their functionality and reliability. The ho-hum prospect of renting a car in the past rarely elicited any feeling of excitement.

The car rental process, however, has changed over time. Now, a prospective renter can choose from a wider spectrum of vehicles, including popular high-performance sports cars.

A sports car might appeal to a renter for any number of reasons. A single person traveling alone may crave something novel and fun while on a dull business trip or as a means of rounding out a vacation trip. Others may wish to try their hand at driving a sports car on a temporary basis just for the sake of variety. Still others can use the opportunity to rent a sports car as a financially viable means of creating an extended test drive prior to making a sports car purchase. There are true sports car enthusiasts who need a rental car for any number of reasons and can simply not imagine a return to the doldrums of driving a conventional car.

This great variety of reasons has created sufficient demand for rental agencies to add sports cars to their available fleet of autos. Now, in addition to station wagons, economy class cars and base sedans, more and more rental companies are providing prospective customers with a healthy array of sports car options.

Of course, one cannot expect to rent a high-end import sports are at rates similar to those they might pay for a domestic standard issue vehicle. Sports cars, of course, are more expensive to purchase, maintain and insure. Thus, one can expect to pay significantly higher rates when renting one.

In addition to higher base rental rates, prospective customers can also anticipate some additional expenses. For instance, sports cars generally do not boast the fuel efficiency found in the more frequently rented subcompact cars and gas bills for the period of the rental are likely to run high.

Additionally, the rental agency may require additional insurance purchase, or at the very least, more expensive insurance options, than are generally required of other rented vehicles. Remember, the agency must purchase (or lease) these cars at considerably higher prices than standard models and that expense will be reflected throughout your rental experience.

Younger drivers may also encounter some difficulties in renting high-end sports cars. Rental agencies have always been somewhat restrictive when it comes to the age of drivers, but there are likely to have even stiffer requirements for the rental of sports cars. Rental agencies want to insure the safety of their sports car investments.

Sports car rentals create a unique opportunity for renters. It allows someone who may otherwise never have the opportunity to take the wheel of a high-performance vehicle to see what all the fuss is about. It can give one a chance at glamour and excitement for a few days without any real commitment or long-term burden. Although the cost of renting a sports car may be high enough to freeze some renters out of the market, their availability does increase their accessibility to those who may never have another opportunity to enjoy the sports car experience.

The next time you are renting a car, you may want to consider trying an exotic sports car for a few days. It can add something unique to your vacation or business trip. You can experience the excitement of sports car driving without the burdens of sports car ownership. If one can afford the additional expense of a great rental car upgrade, the rental sports car experience may be a great alternative to chugging about in a dull generic car.

For more articles like this one, please visit [http://www.SportsCarGuide.org]